Indiana, Anderson - Sunday, July 20, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

I tried to publish this post last night, but was having trouble getting on the campground Wi-Fi and our hotspot.

On Saturday we celebrated July birthdays, granddaughter Mackenzie and great niece Avery.  Avery is the little blonde head – I was never quick enough to get a picture of anything but the back of her head.

 

 Although the weather was a little cool the grandkids seemed to have a good time in the pool at their great grandparent’s house.  Then it was time to come inside and warm up.

 

This morning we headed to Indianapolis for the last meeting we will have until next year with our friends from Indiana Rolling Thunder Chapter One.  It’s encouraging to see that the membership of this chapter is growing.  We’ll miss these guys, they do a lot to promote awareness of POW/MIA issues.  We are proud to be a part of this organization.  If you would like more information on what they do, check out www.indianarollingthunder.com.

This afternoon we went to the Madison County Fairgrounds in Alexandria to see the results of the judging of grandkids Mackenzie and Kyle’s 4-H projects.  Pretty proud of both of them.  Kyle got blue ribbons and honor mention on his cookies and Lego project.  Mackenzie got a blue ribbon and honor mention on her bread.  Her child development project got a championship ribbon and is going to the state fair.

 

 

 

We stopped by the Farm Bureau milk shake booth before we left.  Our friend Mike was working there – he said he was “quality control”.  He must have been doing a good job, the shakes were great.

Indiana, Anderson - Thursday, July 17, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

This week we went through the totes we brought home from the storage unit, decided what to keep and what was going to goodwill.  On Wednesday we took all of the empty totes to daughter Desira, she has so many projects going on she is always needing totes so it worked out well for all of us.  Next year we’ll tackle a few more.

One of the things I found in the totes was a project I started 18 years ago – two Christmas candle holders.  I know it was 18 years ago because the receipts were still in the box.  The paint I bought for them is still good!  I need to get these ceramic pieces cleaned so they can be fired.  It may be this time next year when I’m able to pick them up and paint them, but after 18 years what’s a few months more.  I worked on one of them this afternoon and after I took the picture I noticed a few more areas I still need to clean up.

Last night we met Greg’s sisters, Susan and Linda and their husbands David and Rex, for supper at Sahm’s in Pendleton.  We had a great time catching up with them, their kids and grandkids.  Our time here is flying by and we haven’t worked in as much visitation time with family and friends as we would like, but we have enjoyed tremendously what time we have been able to spend with them.

I was at the doctor bright and early this morning for my checkup – all my numbers came out good.  The only thing I have left is getting my osteoporosis medication administered.  Greg is finished with everything but the dentist appointments.  He has another one on Monday.  All in all we are in pretty good shape, we just need to lose some weight L, we are getting ready to work on that.

This afternoon we said goodbye to a wonderful family friend, Rex Etchison.  While we were at the showing Greg and daughter Amanda met up with many old friends from when they lived in Frankton.  It’s always nice to see that they are remembered fondly by so many people.

When Amanda dropped us off at home we loaded up our two folding RV bicycles so she could take them to her house.  We’ll pick them back up again next week but we have an appointment next Wednesday to have the engine checked out on the coach and we can’t put them on the back of the coach where we had them because the engine wouldn’t be accessible.  We have the bicycles for sale, I’m not going to try riding again – I just beat myself up too bad trying to relearn to ride while we were in Florida.  You really can forget how to ride a bicycle.  I can’t believe my osteoporosis is too bad or I think I would have broken something when I was falling all over that bike J.

Indiana, Anderson - Wednesday, July 9, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

The last couple of days I’ve been going through the contents of a few totes we brought back from the storage unit.  I’ve sorted through cookbooks, tax records and old sewing patterns among other things.  A lot of the patterns were embroidery patterns that have to be from the late 60’s or early 70’s.  A couple were even older than that.  They were ones my mom had given me, they were in their original envelopes.  There was no date, but the postage was only one cent.  I think I’ll take them back to her, now that she has a little free time she may want to do some embroidery.  I’ll have to ask daughter Desira if she remembers one in particular of Holly Hobby.  When she was about 3 or 4 she was crazy about Holly Hobby so I made her a long white skirt with a picture of Holly Hobby embroidered on the front. 

The shredder is going to be busy now getting rid of some really old tax records.  The cookbooks I don’t want to keep are going to daughter Desira to see if she wants any of them before they head out to a new home.  I haven’t decided what to do with the old patterns yet, I imagine someone collects them, but I don’t know who.

Today we made another trip to Columbus for Greg’s dental appointment – almost done.  After that we stopped by the Indiana State Trap Shoot just outside of Fortville to visit with daughter Desira for a while.  The weather was beautiful today for a motorcycle ride.

Tomorrow we have the honor of being part of an escort that will bring the remains of a Korean War soldier from the Indianapolis Airport to Elwood.  The Rolling Thunder Indiana group that we belong to has done this before but our travels haven’t allowed us to be a part of the escorts in the past.

USAF Airman 3/C Howard Eugene Martin died on November 22, 1952 near Anchorage, Alaska, following a tragic military airplane crash that killed a total of 52 servicemen.  There were no survivors and recovery was never possible.  His remains were recovered from Colony Glacier during the summers of 2012 and 2013 – 60 years after the accident following the melting of the glacier at the crash site.  He was officially positively identified on his 83^rd birthday, April 18, 2014.  His remains will be flown tomorrow from U.S. Military facilities in Hawaii to Indianapolis.

Indiana, Anderson - Sunday, July 6, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

Well our plan to watch fireworks from the campground didn’t work out.  We could hear them all around, but couldn’t see a darn thing.  We spent the 4^th of July last year sitting on the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C. – hard to beat that.  We’ve heard of a prime watching spot for next year.

Yesterday we helped daughter Desira get ready to go to the Indiana State Trap Shoot.  She will have a booth there in addition to being the on-site EMT.  We folded 198 T-shirts for her.  We’ll be going up Saturday to see her and Dan shoot and then join them for the shooter’s dinner that night.  Hope the weather holds out for them.

I’ve been going through a couple of totes of cookbooks we brought back from the storage unit.  I’ve picked out a few to take with me on the road this year for a closer look, the rest are headed out to a new home.  I think I still have two more totes full of them in the storage unit to go through next year.

This afternoon we had a good visit with our great grandson, Braxton.  Here’s a picture of the little “living room wrecker”.  He’s too busy with his toys to have too much to do with us, but he did give me a kiss and a hug when we got ready to leave, made my day.

 

 

Thought I would pass along this tip for anyone having trouble with dry skin.  Don’t know if it is old age or the fact that I am outside more, but my usual body lotion just wasn’t helping my arms and legs anymore.  I had bought this conditioner for my hair and didn’t really like it so it was just sitting in the cabinet.  I thought the other day about all of the fancy oils it was supposed to have in it and decided I would give it a try on my skin.  It works great, it isn’t sticky or greasy.  Now in addition to the oils it has several things I can’t pronounce so if anyone knows of why I shouldn’t be doing this, let me know – otherwise I’ll be buying some more.

Indiana, Anderson - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

The “salad in a jar” experiment worked out well.  I prepared these last Friday and we had them for lunch today.  You can pack enough salad in a half pint jar to fix a nice size chef salad, just add some chicken and cheese.  I think using cherry tomatoes might be even better than using the Roma tomato slices.

 

 

It was very tempting to just sit outside and enjoy the beautiful weather today.

We both spent some time getting ready for our move tomorrow.  I packed up the loose things inside while Greg packed up the grill and the rest of the outside things.  We’ll be moving tomorrow to the Caboose Campground just outside of Remington in northern Indiana.  We’ll spend a couple of weeks there visiting son A.J. and his family.

Indiana, Anderson - Monday, June 9, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

Greg is working on a project to provide more stability for the motorcycle while we are moving down the road.  He wanted to know if I wanted to go to the hardware store with him – I opted to stay home and cook instead.

I started out thinking about what to do with 3 overripe bananas and some chocolate I had left over from my strawberry dipping experiment a week or so ago.  I progressed to thinking about other things I could make from what I had on hand and I ended up cooking all day.

The first things finished were these cakes.  I split a recipe for a 9x13 pan between my two smaller pans.  The one on the left is just plain yellow cake with the leftover chocolate and walnuts on top.  The one on the right is loaded with a can of sour cherries (not pie filling).  The one on the right is going in the freezer for later.

 

 

A pizza for lunch came next – pepperoni, olives, mushrooms and cheese. 

 

 

I cut up vegetables for stir fry this evening and for this pasta salad.  I added pepperoni (a package of this stuff just seems to multiply), cheese and lots of veggies.  I didn’t have any bottled Italian dressing but I did have a couple of packages of the kind you have to mix with oil and vinegar so that worked.

 

 

I had to thaw chicken for the stir fry so I thawed some extra and made filling for chicken enchiladas later on in the week.

I still had those three bananas that started all of this so I decided to try the banana bread recipe I saw on the back of the flour bag.  The recipe said it made one 9” loaf or two 8” loaves.  I didn’t know what size my pans were so I guessed 8” and made two loaves.  You can see they are kind of short so obviously my pan is a 9” pan and I should have made just one loaf.  I turned out ok, I’ll just freeze one for later.

I do the stir fry outside because I don’t want to get spatters in the kitchen.

 

 

It turned out really good.  It feels good to sit down for a while.

When it comes to cleaning up after one of these marathon sessions, I think a dishwasher might have been nice.  But, the rest of the time I’m glad I have the extra storage instead.

While I was cooking, Greg was making great progress on his bike stabilizer.  He saw a couple of similar stabilizers on some bikes from Canada when we were at an RV rally in Syracuse, NY last year.  Those were purchased from somewhere but he was sure he could duplicate one.  Although we carry more tools than most RVers we don’t carry welding equipment and a couple of other tools that were needed for this project.  With some help from our friend Michael and Papaw Jack he was successful.

This bar will be bolted upright onto the lift for the motorcycle.

 

 

A connecting rod goes between the stabilizer bar and the handlebar of the motorcycle.

 

 

 

Indiana, Anderson - Sunday, June 8, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

Saturday evening we were invited to dinner with good friends Greg and Dinah.  We’ve known them since high school so we have lots of things to reminisce about.  They live out in the country where it is nice and quiet.  Their porch was a wonderful place to enjoy a great meal of salad, lasagna and garlic bread.

 

 

Sunday we spent at the gun club with daughter Desira and son-in-law Dan.  We thought the trap shoot was going to be a washout, it rained hard and the wind blew early in the morning.  We were glad we had Desira’s car rather than having to ride the motorcycle.  By mid-morning the sun came out and the shooters had a good day.  When we left the gun club we went to a 60^th anniversary party for friends Jim and Marilyn – wow, did they ever have a lot of well-wishers!

Indiana, Anderson - Friday, June 6, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

The Wi-Fi here at the campground and our hot spot have both been spotty so it has been really hard to post to the blog.  I really didn’t miss posting too much exciting J.

On Tuesday evening we worked at the gun club with daughter Desira and son-in-law Dan.  On Wednesday it poured down rain so we stayed inside and enjoyed some movies.

Thursday we headed for Columbus, IN for another dentist appointment for Greg – the weather was beautiful for a bike ride.  That night we went into Pendleton for the June Jamboree with daughter Amanda and grandkids Mackenzie and Kyle.  I think Kyle managed to ride all of the rides except the “little kid” rides.  We enjoyed a K-burger from the Kiwanis booth and an ice cream cone.  Funny how the June Jamboree seemed so much bigger when I was younger.  I forgot to take my camera so no pictures, sorry.

Today we were up bright and early because I had an appointment at 9:30 to get my hair highlighted.  I’ve been putting that off thinking that my hair would eventually turn to a nice shade of silver or white.  Looks like that isn’t going to happen, it’s just turned kind of a mousy blah color so it’s going to need some help.

This afternoon I tried a couple of simple new recipes that turned out pretty good.

The first one I don’t have a name for, but you put 1 T. butter in a skillet, add half a bag of frozen corn and cook for 5-7 minutes.  Add 1/8 tsp. garlic powder, ¼ tsp. pepper and ¼ tsp. paprika, stir until well coated.  Add 1/6 cup parmesan cheese and stir until a little melted.  I like this one, Greg was ok with it but he doesn’t really like frozen corn.

The next one was Cream Drop Scones.  I saw this one on Pinterest and decided to fix it because I happened to have some leftover heavy cream that I didn’t want to throw away.

Stir together:

1 ½ c. four
2 T. sugar
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt

Add 1 c. heavy cream and stir until dough just comes together

Drop by small ice cream scoops onto parchment paper.  Sprinkle with coarse sugar (what I used was called sugar sprinkles).  Bake at 400 degrees 15-20 minutes or until golden.  Serve warm

 

 

We put sliced strawberries and whipped cream over these and they were delicious.

I am experimenting with “salads in a jar”.  They are supposed to last a week in the fridge.  I will probably use them in a couple of days instead of waiting a week.  I put one together a couple of days ago to see if a decent sized salad would fit in a half-pint jar – it does.  The secret is to push the lettuce down really tight and put the lid on quick before it pops back up again.  I wouldn’t store these on the side, but it made it easier to take a picture of what it looks like.  These have carrots, celery, roma tomato slices, green pepper and romaine.  I’ll let you know how they turn out.  They look really pretty sitting in the fridge and I feel good knowing I have salads ready to go, so no excuses about not wanting to chop vegetables when dinner time rolls around.

 

Indiana, Anderson - Sunday, June 1, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

Greg had a quiet birthday today compared to the rambunctious celebration the grandkids had yesterday.  We went to Cracker Barrel for lunch and that was the extent of it.  He did have a full day of racing and baseball on TV so I think he was happy.

Although we have lived in our RV for three years now, we have only been able to travel since I retired this time last year.  We’ve had a lot of wonderful adventures since the last time I wished him a Happy Birthday – looking forward to many more.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was captured and held hostage in Afghanistan on 6-30-09.  Bergdahl was released this weekend – a happy occasion.  Greg can now take off the bracelet he has worn for a long time recognizing the plight of Sgt. Bergdahl.

 

 

Indiana, Anderson - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

Not much happening at the Jones’ coach.  After the crowd that was here during the Memorial Day weekend, the peace and quiet is kind of nice.  I don’t think any kids at all are in the park right now.  Internet reception was down to nothing while the park was so full, so I’ve been catching up.

On Tuesday we made a trip to Columbus to see our dentist.  I just had a cleaning but Greg is having some work done so we’ve made several trips since we have been back and have a couple more to go – too bad Medicare doesn’t cover dental work.

Tuesday evening we helped son-in-law Dan with the trap shoot at Fall Creek Valley Conservation Club.  Daughter Desira is in Kansas visiting her brother so we didn’t have her supervision to make sure we got everything right.

Today we made a trip to Winchester to Wick’s Pies.  We’ll be going to visit Mom at my brother’s house tomorrow.  Everyone there likes gooseberry pie so we were hoping we could find one at Wicks – we got lucky. 

Indiana, Anderson - Sunday, May 25, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

Sometimes we get caught up in the long weekend with family, friends and hopefully sunshine that the Memorial Day weekend brings and we forget the real meaning of this holiday – to honor the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed forces.  We want to say thank you to those brave men and women who died protecting the freedom we so dearly love.

Before the Memorial Day weekend crowd started coming in we took a quiet walk in the sunshine.  This pond is artesian spring fed and the swimming area will soon be full of swimmers.  Outside the swimming area will be people in canoes and paddleboats.

 

Along this line of trees about 9:30 in the morning the sun must be hitting just right because the whole shoreline is churning with the number of large fish jumping.  This is a catch and release pond, looks like they are well fed.

 

 

This trail leads through the trees along the White River, we can get in a nice mile walk up here. 

Another pond on the property is called “turtle pond”, I think it is obvious why.  This pond is also a catch and release pond, no swimming.  We think it must be fed by White River.  Not nearly so clear as the spring fed pond.

All of the sites in the campground are full this weekend and additional campers are out in the tent camping area along White River.

This jump pad drew a big crowd on Saturday when 10-year old grandson Kyle, his sister Mackenzie and mom and dad were here.  Kyle reported he had met one hundred new friends while checking it out (he might not have been exaggerating too much).

 

The Saturday night hayride was also popular.

 

The last couple of evenings it’s been nice to have a fire as the night got cooler.  One evening this little squirrel looked like he wanted to join us.

 

 

Saturday afternoon we watched grandson Kyle’s last soccer game.  They lost, but he made some good moves during the game.

 

Saturday evening we cooked hamburgers on the grill along with corn, potato salad and baked beans.  Kyle was the only one who left room for s’mores.

Later in the evening Greg and I had strawberry shortcake.  Memorial Day weekend wouldn’t be right without it.

 

Indiana, Anderson - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

Bright and early this morning we headed to Indianapolis to be with our Rolling Thunder Indiana One group as they prepared to head to Washington D.C. for this year’s demonstration ride.

This year there are 73 bikes in our group, many with passengers, so I am guessing over 100 people.  Most of those people are from Indiana, but groups from Texas and Colorado also gathered here to ride with the Indiana group.

 

  

Part of the ceremony is a release of balloons with the names of the 51 Indiana POW/MIAs still missing from the Viet Nam conflict.

 

 

Governor Pence was there and gave a very impressive speech.  I think he really wanted to head out with the group.

Another part of the ceremony is a roll call of the 51 Indiana POW/MIA names, in turn each name is acknowledged as “still missing”.

Channel 8 was there interviewing people and they had a nice mention of the group and what they are doing on the news at noon.  Greg and I were shown in the newscast, standing in the background, but it’s doubtful anyone but us could have picked us out since we were just a couple of 100 plus people standing around in sunglasses, hats and black vests.

I tried to get pictures of individual bikes as they left, but the only one that turned out very good was one of our good friends Dick and Linda.  We wish them and the entire group safe travels.

We came home this afternoon and took a nap sitting outside in the nice weather.

This evening we treated our friends Mike and Susan to supper at Bonges.  They graciously loaned us a car for a month or so when we had to come home early to Indiana.  We certainly appreciate good friends.

The weather is just now getting nice enough to be able to do all of our traveling on the bike.  If our planned return to Indiana in mid-May had worked out we would have been fine.  However, sometimes the plan just doesn’t work out.

Indiana, Anderson - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GRANDSON KYLE!!

Yesterday we put up our flags.  We forgot to put the stand under the tire when we set up so Greg unhooked all of the utilities outside and I secured the cookie jar inside.  As Greg moved the coach about 8” forward I slid the flag pole stand in so the tire would sit on it as he backed up the 8 “ and put us back where we started.

The wind has been whipping all day but we have avoided getting any rain.  As I write this a little after 5:00, it looks like we might not continue to be so lucky.  Naturally, when I went out to take a picture the wind died down.

 

 

Today was a recipe testing day.  My first test was a bread recipe that had only four ingredients; flour, yeast, salt and honey plus water.  I was intrigued by the ingredients and wondered if it might not be a simple recipe granddaughter Kenzie could use for her 4-H project this year.  It was good, but not extra special.  If I am going to go to the trouble of making bread from scratch only an extra special recipe is a keeper.  I don’t have a heavy duty stand mixer, so I’m mixing by hand and then kneading for about 10 minutes.  I’m also puzzled that it didn’t round up in the pan.  After it had risen the second time it was rounded up slightly over the top of the pan, but it fell somewhat during baking.  I wonder if it has anything to do with the hot air that is circulating in the convection oven.  The texture was fine and it didn’t look as if it had fallen, I’ll see if the next bread recipe does the same thing.

I made broccoli cheddar soup for lunch.  This wasn’t a test, I had made it before.  You'll note that I keep forgetting to take nice pictures before we jump in for the taste test.

Daughter Desira gave us some rhubarb so the next test was a rhubarb cake with a cinnamon crunch topping.  Once again good, but we decided we liked rhubarb crisp better.  We aren’t throwing this out, but it isn’t on the keeper list.

Spinach Artichoke Dip was next, definitely a keeper, but I need to add more cheese than the recipe called for to make it a little looser.

Glazed Sausage and Pineapple Bits turned out really good.  I saw a recipe but I didn’t have what it called for to make the sauce, so I made one from half orange sauce and half barbeque sauce.  The recipe called for them to be baked for 15-20 minutes at 425 degrees.  I picked 20 minutes, I think 15 would have been better.

Last on the list was Chocolate Dipped Strawberries.  I had never tried dipped fruit and the strawberries were so nice I just couldn’t resist giving it a try.  I used the semi-sweet chocolate I prefer rather than the milk chocolate Greg prefers.  I hate he won’t really like them J. 

Needless to say, after all of our taste testing I didn’t fix an actual meal for this evening.